Seeing the living man take on a more healthy palor, and the other slip from light into shadow, Rajani rose from her crouch and spotted the one called Gideon, the beast of a man fighting the beast of a pig. The animals stank of, well they stank of pig, she supposed. The epics had animals reeking of fear or magic... she wasnt exactly sure what a wild pig smelled like. Either way it was unpleasant.

"Fight true warrior, have no fear!" she shouted, she deftly drew the wand, seeing the single mark on it's length. Part of her wanted to hold it, to save it, but savings went unspent. She flicked the wand sending a spray of golden fire across one of the smaller pigs. She moved closer to the warrior...

(OOC - Wand of Magic Missle at one of the smaller pigs, then move towards Gideon)

Balin rushed to the battle, his blazing sphere following beside, but saw that there was no place to roll the sphere without searing an ally. He began to manuver the sphere to circle around the melee.

Toboron,rushing through the underbrush as others were came to the rear and saw the flank of the largest swine he had ever seen. Without a moment's delay, he plunged forward with his spear. He nearly missed in his haste, but the oblivious mass was an easy target and his spear bit deeply into the beast's haunch.

Dimi charged in a moment afterward, slashing with his weapons at the swine's underside, though his frantic slashing failing to land a solid strike. [<ooc Even with two-weapon fighting, you have penalties on both attacks which swallow your attack bonus...>

As the swine seemed fixated on the mage, Gideon slashed down hard with his blade. The blade carved a gouge into the swine's posterior. A second strike again wounded the beast as it turned back again to its closest assailent.

Yerwick frantically unleashed another spell - a pair of tiny bolts of lightning flew out and struck the beast in the back of its head, even as it gathered itself to spring upon Gidieon. The magic struck home and the beast slammed to the ground in front of Gideon.

Kou'rha gave Tenrir a hard look. The old man's eyes showed an urgent fury that Kou'rha had never seen before, one that frightened him more than he cared to know. Staff in hand, Kou'rha turned and marched out of the hut.

The easternmost temple was a three-hour trek across the forest and up Uorlhan's Spine. Kou'rha did not run or rush, but lumbered steadily and without yielding toward the sacred spot. At last he came upon it: atop a cold, windblown bluff was the barren temple, marked only with a few natural columns of gray granite. Here, it was said, Uorlhan emerged from the earth to place his people, to fasten them to the land as his servants.

Standing much like the stone columns around him, Kou'rha waited, his senses opened to the blistering wind buffeting the temple area, waiting for a sight or sound or smell. Tenrir had been urgent in his command; for what was Kou'rha summoned here? Patient as the unmoving earth, the guardian waited.

"d**n it, Yerwick. What part of 'hide behind the ogre' don't you understand?"Gideon was angry, twice so at himself that he allowed himself to feel so in the heat of the battle.It would be best to vent that anger on the beast.And what better way to do so than get into the mood..."Gideon smash!" he shouted as he struck at the oblivious pig. That would teach it to go munching on wizards while he was there.

(chop piggy once, plus chop piggy once more as attack of opportunity as it moved away from (edit) me to Yerwick)

« Last Edit: October 08, 2008, 02:03:58 PM by EchoMirage »

Logged

"Captain, the buttocks are moving from the pink into the red and purple spectrum! We cannot maintain this rate of spanking any longer!"

Only two swine were left fighting, and they devoted their attention to the two warriors in front of them. The leftmost managed to slip its head underneath Vletch's shield and ripped upwards with its tusks. The tusks pierced his mail and he fell back, clutching his bloody belly. Wonschakgle managed to block his foe and struck downward with his sword, slashing deeply into the hog's neck, but not killing it.

Rajani drew a bead on the swine, and blasted away a bolt of magic. The bolt struck the beast in the head, and it stood, staggered.

The faint waft of a campfire - or perhaps of the remains of one drifted into Kur'rha's conciousness. Someone had built a fire in this holy place?

He carefully moved in the direction his nose was leading him, coming around the rear of the bluff. Here, he saw the remains of a small campsite sheltered by some heavy bushes. A firepit, still barely warm, lay incompletely buried. Some attention was made to hide it, but not a through one.

Looking about, he saw a strange footprint. It was Alun, but missing a few toes. He thought for a moment, but could not recall any of his tribesmen - at least the living ones - that were so injured.

He thought back to the conversation he had just before he left his uncle, and the small wooden token his uncle had given him. "Much is afoot," he said, "much is changing. Follow the signs." This footprint was definately a sign.

Seizing an opening, Balin rolled his sphere onto the backside of the swine which had savaged Vletch. A shriek of procine pain and outrage followed, sending the beast hurting forward - onto Toboron's ready spear. The spearhead lodged into the beast's throat, and it was all that Toboron could manage to keep his weapon from being wrest from his hands.

Dimi, eager to make up for his prior failure against Mama pork, lunged at the wounded beast, his pair weapons ready to carve the newly roasted and spitted swine. His scimetar glanced off - deflected by a flailing hoof, but his kurki bit hard into the swine's belly.

Nearby, Jhoric unleashed another bolt of energy into Wonschakgle's foe. The blast struck the beast full in the torso and a moment later it dropped to the ground, quite dead...

Gideon swung down hard, smashing into the injured swine's skull, smashing through the bone and killing it instantly.

It was over.

Rajani moved over to the stricken Vletch, who was standing against a tree, trying to hold in his insides. The tracery of magic caused the wound to glow briefly, and the worst of the injury vanished. Vletch looked at Rajani with a gaze that held more then gratitude.

Wonschakgle looked about at the carnage. "What a fight! We eat like kings tonight!"

"We sure will!" Gideon laughed. "One thing I ask, though: are all beasts in this land so feral? If so, I do not wish to see the bulls!"

Looking over their band, he mused: "We should get some of the pigs to camp, I say - lots of mouths to feed there. The rest of us head on, to find what befell the woodcutters, and teach it a lesson if necessary."

On a grassy knoll he wiped his blade, and proceeded to right one bent armor spike with his hammer.

Logged

"Captain, the buttocks are moving from the pink into the red and purple spectrum! We cannot maintain this rate of spanking any longer!"

Yerwick, still shaken by his brush with death, looked at Gideon and said, "Why, that sounds like an excellent idea indeed. We will build litters for the wounded, dead and the best cuts from the swine. You seem well able to handle the dangerous vermin hereabouts, so you should be able to, with the guide, find the woodcutters camp and find out what happened." His gestures encompassed the lot.

Rajani kept to herself when she wasnt checking the various injuries that had been sustained in the fight. She had no plan of telling the men how to build racks to carry the injured home, and she was still rather intimidated by the carcasses of the dead pigs. She knelt next to the body of a dead man, Kerevour she believed his name had been.

In Endkelton the dead did not rest easy, and she had no intention of waiting to see if the man would rise screaming blood and murder from his deathbed. She hummed a funeral hymn as she arranged his arms and legs, and with delicate stitches closed the ragged wound that had killed him. The rest of the ritual would wait until there were fewer viewers present, it was rather gruesome for the uninitiated to see.

There was no work left for a smith's hands, so Gideon wandered around, to a nearby hillock, to look around. They sure did not need another surprise. Those pigs had to have come from somewhere, and he wanted to know what else was around.

Logged

"Captain, the buttocks are moving from the pink into the red and purple spectrum! We cannot maintain this rate of spanking any longer!"

Balin found a comfortable spot that was out of the way and waited for something that needed his attention. In the meantime he could reflect on how the battle had gone and how he could improve what he did.

Logged

Ph'nglui mglwnafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn.

(\__/) This is The Bunny.(='.'=) Add him to your signature like me(")_(") to further his world domination.

Jhoric was helping put together one of the strechers when he thought he heard something from the nearby underbrush. "Piglets", he thought. He crawled over carefully, looking under the brush, and gave a shriek of suprise at the huge beetle that was underneath.

The black and orange striped beetle was the size of a squirrel, and bore fierce looking mandibles. It seemed unconcerned about being discovered and instead proceeded on a beeline towards one of the swine carcasses.

"Ah, only forest, for miles and miles" Gideon grumbled. He loved the fresh air, high vistas and open space of the mountains. Forests had a nasty tendency to lash his face with branches. Having noticed little of interest, he headed back, to the party.

"All done? Let us move on."

Logged

"Captain, the buttocks are moving from the pink into the red and purple spectrum! We cannot maintain this rate of spanking any longer!"

Jhoric was shocked at the size and interesting colors of his unexpected discovery. He decided to leave the strange beetle alone. Dismayed at the fact that he had not discovered a piglet to call his own, Jhoric decided it was best to move on.

"Yeah, I think our work is done here." He said, returning to the group. He was feeling better than he had in a long time, and it showed. He felt as if he really could call these people his friends someday. And that wasn't something he used to think very often.

"You all did an amazing job," He said to the group. He look honestly proud to have been a part of this fight, and he secretly hoped they would accept him as one of them.

"It is common for those saved from death, by a healer's gift, are often deeply bonded to the person who restored them." Rajani said, standing close to Vletch. "In Endkelton, it is traditional for a man who wishes to court a woman to gain the consent of her father, and her eldest brother. It is then tradition for him to present to her a suitable gift, a demonstration of the talents of his hands and skills."

"My father passed on before the end of my homeland, though my brother was not so fortunate. In lieu of their approval I think you must seek approval from Master Taryer. Until then it would be immodest to procede any further."